“The building aggregation switching isaccomplished by the 1x32 (or 2x32 forequipment redundancy and fiber-routediversity) optical splitter, which is a pas-sive device so there are no power require-ments and little managementwhile being highly reliable. Theoptical network terminals pro-vide connectivity to the usersand end devices.”Recently, the Associationfor Passive Optical LAN’s mar-keting committee chair, JohnHoover, authored an articleon IOTInnovator.com titled“Passive Optical LAN: The per-fect partner for the Internet ofThings.” In that article he said,“The key characteristic that dis-tinguishes POL from any al-ternative is its centralized ar-chitecture, intelligence andmanagement. Essentially, POLworks as one big switch withno other switches needed in be-tween it and a vast number ofend points. This means thatto control a broad array of Io Tproducts, as well as other cor-porate IT needs, often requires just onedata center. With POL’s streamlined de-sign, there is a reduction in space re-quired as there are fewer telecom rooms,less cable mass and smaller and limitedpathways required.”In its “enlightening” white paper,the association explains synergies be-tween passive optical LANs and DAS.

“To be clear, the DAS traffic does nottraverse the passive optical LAN equip-ment, but it can leverage the same fiberinfrastructure that passive optical LANutilizes,” the paper emphasizes. “Alone,DAS has a challenging return-on-in-vestment analysis—it is relatively ex-pensive, it only does one thing andthe end customers think they shouldnot have to pay for it. Passive opticalLAN has an excellent ROI that can jus-tify the deployment of DAS over exist-ing spare fibers. In the near term, DASand passive optical LAN can gain ad-ditional synergies with combined pow-ering, power backup and fiber man-agement between them. In the future,as both DAS and passive optical LANtechnologies advance, it can be ex-pected that the passive optical LANONT can integrate both DAS and WiFiaccess point hardware.”

Zoning in

In the paper “Zone cabling and cov-erage area planning,” Siemon’s globalsales engineer Valerie Maguire ex-plains, “Zone cabling is ideal for sup-porting convergence of data and voicenetworks, wireless device uplink con-nections, and a wide range of sensors,control panels, and detectors for light-ing, security, and other building com-munications. A zone cabling designconsists of horizontal cables run fromthe floor distributor in the telecommu-nications room to an intermediate con-nection point that is typically housedin a zone enclosure located in the ceil-ing space, on the wall, or be-low an access floor. The nameof this intermediate connec-tion point depends on thetypes of endpoint device con-nection it serves, and on theapplicable regional structuredcabling standard. Connectionsat the service connectionpoint are typically facilitatedby connecting hardware sup-porting 2 to 96 outlets. Cablescan then be connected fromoutlets in the service connec-tion point to building devices,service outlets, or telecommu-nications outlets.”The comprehensive docu-ment takes a detailed look atzone cabling designs and theapplications they can sup-port. It notes, “Zone cablingis a highly flexible infrastruc-ture that is ideally suited forthe convergence of voice, data, wireless,and building device applications overone managed network. Furthermore,outlets serving voice/data, wireless,and building device connections can beconveniently combined within one ser-vice connection point.”The proclaimed arrival of the Internetof Things is requiring many enterprisenetworks to support more applicationsand more information transfer thanever—and certainly more than they didyears ago. Not only the type and perfor-mance level of cabling, but also the archi-tecture of the network’s physical layer,can play a role in the network’s ability tomeet these new requirements. u

Patrick McLaughlin is our chief editor.

Siemon’s white paper “Zone cabling and coverage area
planning” provides detailed explanations of how a
zone cabling architecture can support several types of
building connections.